Sudden Wetland Dieback

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Saltwater marshes in New England are dying back, resulting in barren landscapes. The reason? Unknown. Possible candidates to explain the dieback include rising seas, mobile chunks of ice, flocks of geese, chemical pollution, sulfuric acid produced by bacteria and purple marsh crabs (Sesarma reticulatum).

Dying salt marshes puzzle New England scientists, threatening habitats from the Associated Press via CBC

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 8:58 AM

Toxic Oceans

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

“The world's 6 billion inhabitants, he [Jeremey Jackson] says, have failed to follow a homeowner's rule of thumb: Be careful what you dump in the swimming pool, and make sure the filter is working. ‘We're pushing the oceans back to the dawn of evolution,’ Jackson said, ‘a half-billion years ago when the oceans were ruled by jellyfish and bacteria.’”

A Primeval Tide of Toxins from Kenneth Weiss of the Los Angeles Times.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:42 AM

Seaweed and Chips

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants

French researchers have identified a possible new source of energy-storing supercapacitors: baked seaweed.

Baked Seaweed and Chips via news@nature.com's Philip Ball.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:27 AM

Venezuela Pushing Organic Agriculture

Category(-ies): Plants, Food and Medicine

How Green Is That Garden? – With Oil Revenue, Venezuela is Pushing Organic Agriculture. Via E/The Environmental Magazine.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 1:07 PM

Endangered Atlantic Forest in Brazil

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation

Submitted by the garden's director, Dr. Quentin Cronk:

The Amazon forest is in well-known decline, but another of Brazil's biodiversity hotspots, the Atlantic forest, has been even more devastated. The Atlantic forest contains the highest tree diversity in the world but its area has been reduced to a fraction of its former extent.

Brazil's other disappearing rainforest via the Sci-Tech section of Aljazeera.net

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:19 AM

Weeding Seaweed

Category(-ies): Invasive Plants

Scientists untangle seaweed’s effect on other species, a press release from the University of California's Integrated Pest Management program.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 11:11 AM | Comments (0)